“Active Roster” means the portion of a team’s roster of players whose points can count for the team’s total, and whose salaries count against the team’s cap in full.

“Farm Team” means a group of players who meet the eligibility requirements for the farm team and have been placed there by the GM. Their points do not count for the team’s totals, nor do their salaries count against the team’s cap.

“Injured Reserve” means a list where a GM can place players who have long-term injuries or who have left the NHL, whether by unexpected retirement or by fleeing to the Kontinental Hockey League. There is no maximum or minimum number of players in the Injured Reserve.

“Waivers” means a system that allows GMs to escape from part of a player’s salary during the season, in exchange for removing that player from his Active Roster and giving other teams the opportunity to pick up the waived player for nothing more than his salary.

“Offseason” means the period beginning with the awarding of the Stanley Cup, and ending at the beginning of the first NHL regular season game of the following NHL season.

“Drop Day” means one or more days during the Offseason, set by the Commissioners from year to year, on which all GMs must submit to the Commissioners a roster that aligns with the roster limits.

“Buy-Out” is when a GM terminates a contract of one of his players who would otherwise be under contract for the following season. The GM is obliged to pay a portion of the bought-out player’s remaining contract value, and may not bid on that bought-out player when he becomes a free agent. Buy-outs can happen only at designated times during the Offseason.

Section 2 – Classification & Amending Rules

Each of these rules is a Major Rule unless otherwise noted in the rule.

A Major Rule can be amended only by an affirmative vote of at least 67% of all General Managers.

An amendment to a Major Rule can occur only during the Offseason.
An amendment to a Major Rule does not take effect until one full calendar year after the vote, and no sooner.

A Minor Rule can be changed by an affirmative vote of at least 51% of all General Managers.

An amendment to a Minor Rule takes effect immediately, or at the time specified in the amendment.

Despite 2(b), above, an amendment to a Major Rule may take effect less than one full calendar year after the vote, if:

the vote is unanimous; and,
the wording of the proposed amendment specifies that the amendment will take effect at a specified time that is less than one full calendar year from the date of the vote.

Amendments and votes will be prepared, proposed, tallied, and enacted by the Commissioners, although each GM may lobby the Commissioners or other GMs.

PART TWO – Scoring, Rosters, and the Salary Cap

Section 1 - Active Rosters and Counting Points

1.1 At any given time, each team may have up to 24 players in its Active Roster.

1.2 Before each week of play, each team may select from its Active Roster 12 forwards, 6 defencemen, and 2 goaltenders whose points for that week will count towards the team’s totals for both the Regular Season Championship and the Head-to-Head match. Position eligibility is determined by Fantrax.

1.3 Each GM is responsible for setting his own lineup on Fantrax every week. In the cases of waiver claims, farm movement and trades (which are all done by email and might be processed with some delay) a GM should specify which players he wants to start (if applicable).

1.4 Each GM is required to start the best possible lineup out of his active roster every week. Failure to do so might result in a penalty deemed reasonable by the Commissioners.

Section 2 - Points Race Scoring

2.1 The team with the highest number of points is awarded the “Regular Season Championship”, also known as the “Points Race Championship”.

2.2 Points are tracked by the Fantrax website.

2.3 Points are awarded based on the following NHL statistics:

For forwards, 1G = 1A = 1 point
For defencemen, 1G = 1A = 60 minutes of ice time = 1 point.

Note: Decimals are used for TOI: 1/60 (0.017) of a point per every minute of ice time will be awarded to defencemen.

Section 3 - Head-to-Head

3.1 Each week of the Season (until the start of the PFHL playoffs), teams will play a head-to-head match (“H2H Match”) against another team.

(a) The schedule of H2H matches will be determined by the Commissioners during the summer before the Season.

(b) The H2H week starts with Monday’s games and ends with Sunday’s games.

3.2 During H2H Matches, each teams’ 20 active players will contribute toward the teams’ point total the same way Total Points are calculated in Section 2.3, above.

3.3 In each H2H Match, the team with the highest number of points will be the winner.

3.4 A win in H2H play is worth 2 H2H points (not to be confused with Points Race points), a tie is worth 1 point, and a loss is worth 0 points.

Section 4 – Other Roster Components

4.1 Each team has an Active Roster, a Farm Team, and an Injured Reserve.

4.2 While a player is on the Farm Team, any points he accumulates do not count for his team, and his salary does not count against his team’s salary cap.

(a) The maximum number of players in the Farm Team is 15.

(b) Once a forward or defenceman has played 101 total NHL regular-season games, or 56 NHL regular-season games in any one season, that player may no longer be moved to a Farm Team and he must be moved out of the Farm Team by the beginning of the next Season.

(c) Once a goaltender has played 56 total NHL regular-season games, or 31 NHL regular-season games in any one season, that goaltender may no longer be moved to a Farm Team, and he must be moved out of the Farm Team by the beginning of the next Season.

(d) While a player is on the Farm Team, his contract does not elapse unless he was previously on the Active Roster of any team or (Minor Rule) unless he was acquired as a Free Agent.

(e) Even if Fantrax allows GMs to move players in and out of their farm, a GM must always notify the league by email before doing so.

4.3 While a player is on the Injured Reserve, any points he accumulates do not count for his team, and his salary does not count against his team’s salary cap, nor does he count against the 24 players roster limit. Even if Fantrax allows GMs to move players in and out of their Injured Reserve, a GM must always notify the Commissioners by email before doing so. A player may be placed on the Injured Reserve in the following circumstances:

(a) The player suffers or is diagnosed with an injury or illness such that there is a reasonable possibility that he will not be able to play for one month.

Note: It is the responsibility of each team to provide information to the Commissioners of the injury or illness and the probable length of absence. In the absence of such information, the Commissioners may refuse to place a player on the Injured Reserve.

(b) The player, who had been playing in the NHL, has left his NHL team for a KHL team.

4.4 Once a player on the Injured Reserve returns to NHL action, his team must place him in Active Roster at the beginning of the following week.

Note: If a player’s return from injury is unexpected, the Commissioners may grant the team affected a reasonable amount of time, in the discretion of the Commissioners, to allow the team to make moves to comply with cap and roster restrictions.

4.5 During the Offseason, a player on Injured Reserve does not count against the salary cap, but does count against the roster limits for the purposes of Drop Days.

Note: A team can validly place a player on Injured Reserve or allow one to remain on Injured Reserve during the Offseason if the player has a long-term injury or illness creating a reasonable possibility that the player will be absent until the end of the first month of the NHL season.

4.6 During the Offseason, teams can exceed the maximum limits for both the Active Roster and the Farm Team. However, each team must comply with roster limits on each Drop Date, of which there will be two during each Offseason.

(a) On Drop Day 1, every team must submit a list of 39 players (or less) with no more than 24 active players.

(b) On Drop Day 2, every team must submit a list of 39 players (or less) with no more than 24 active players and no more than 15 Farm Team players that is in compliance with the salary cap and floor.

4.7 Drop Day Two Emergency Rule:

(a) On Drop Day 2, a team that has more than 24 Active Roster players who cannot be dropped are allowed to buy out players in order to reduce their Active Roster to 24 players

(b) The most recent free agent acquisition, including RFAs, must be bought out first. The second most recent free agent acquisition, including RFAs, must be bought out second, and so on.,

(d) The normal buy-out rules apply regarding the cap hit in future years

(e) For the first 2 weeks of the season, players bought out in this special process are available for their pre-buy-out cap hit on a one-year contract.

(f) Following the first 2 weeks, the player remains on waivers at a cap hit of $0.500mil on a one-year contract

(g) The team doing the buy-out remains responsible for the buy-out cap hit regardless of whether the player is claimed off Waivers.

(h) If a team has too many players as set out in this section but the GM does not submit any buy-outs, the Commissioners will automatically complete the necessary buy-outs to get the team down to Max Active Roster size.

Section 5 – Roster Movements

Teams have the following options for dealing with players: Waivers, Drops, Buy-Outs, and Trades.

5.1 Waivers: During the Season but not during the Off-Season, each team may place players on the Waivers list by notifying the Commissioners as provided in this section. Players on Waivers may be claimed by any other team at any point during the Season except during the Roster Freeze (see rule 5.5).

Note: Waiver Claims are still allowed during the first week of the Roster Freeze.

While the player is unclaimed, the waiving team must pay 50% of his salary against its cap, but the player does not count against the Active Roster limit. A team who claims a player is responsible for his salary and cap hit. The Waivers list can be found in the ‘Rosters’ section of the PFHL site.

(a) Minor Rule: At any given time, a team may have at the most 2 unclaimed waiver players.

(b) Waiver claims are done by email, and are determined week-by-week, with claims taking effect at the end of NHL’s Sunday games. If multiple teams claim the same player during the same week, the claiming team with the lowest number of total points after Sunday’s games will win the claim. If two claiming teams are tied for the lowest number of total points, defenceman ice time points can be used to break the tie. If they are still tied, the team that contributed the earliest claim will win the player.

(c) At the beginning of the Off-Season, all players that were on waivers and unclaimed are considered to have returned to the Active Roster of the waiving team. After the beginning of the following Season, the waiving team may choose to waive them again. The effect of this rule is that teams cannot get rid of a player’s contract by waiving him unless the player is claimed by another team.

5.2 Drops: Drops take place only in the Off-Season. The Commissioners will designate two “Drop Days” during which each team must reduce its roster to the maximums for Active Roster and Farm Team players.

(a) Teams may drop any player who was selected in the Prospect Draft, but CANNOT drop a player who was signed as a free agent or won in the Inaugural Bidding Draft.

(b) A dropped player is immediately removed from his team.

(c) Minor Rule: Players dropped on Drop Day 1 immediately join the pool of Unrestricted Free Agents. If they are not bid upon, they enter the waiver pool at a salary of $0.500mil on a one-year contract.

(d) Minor Rule: Players dropped on Drop Day 2 join the waiver pool at their original salaries and can be claimed by any other team during the Season. If unclaimed for one entire season, they become Unrestricted Free Agents during the following summer.

5.3 Buy-Outs: On Drop Day 1, GMs have the opportunity to buy out the contracts of players who are not eligible to be dropped. A bought-out player is owed 50% of the remaining value of his contract, to be counted against the buying-out team’s cap. Bought-out players instantly become free agents, but do not go on the offseason free agents Auction list (unless stated otherwise by the Commissioners). A GM may not bid on a player he bought-out on Drop Day 1 during the following Auction.

(a) Buy-outs are executed by sending an email to the Commissioners on or before Drop Day 1, noting the name of the player, the remaining total value of his contract, and the buy-out schedule.

(b) Buy-Out Schedule: The schedule of payments may be either uniform (i.e. x dollars per year for y number of years) or by frontloading (i.e. z dollars this year, then x dollars per year for y number of years, where z > x).

(i) The contractual obligation must be completely paid within the remaining length of the original contract.

(ii) No “back loading”: The payment for any year of the buy-out schedule may not exceed that of any previous year.

5.4 Trades: Trades are done directly on Fantrax by the involved GMs. They become official once approved by the commissioner.

(a) During the Season, trading is only permitted before the Roster Freeze is in effect (see rule 5.5).

(b) Trades are permitted at any time during the Off-Season.

(c) Trades may be disallowed ONLY if at least 67% of the GMs who are not party to the trade make an official vote that the trade was the result of collusion. Collusion is the sole reason for disallowing a trade. Trade cannot be disallowed for mere unfairness, taking advantage, etc…. Only a Commissioner can initiate the disallowance process, but at least one Commissioner MUST do so if he receives protests from at least 40% of the GMs not party to the trade. The protesting parties may not do so anonymously, but the Commissioners are obliged to protect the identity of any party alleging or providing evidence of collusion.

5.5 There will be a Roster Freeze in effect beginning at 12am PST on the Monday after the NHL trade deadline (i.e. at the end of Sunday) and continuing until the end of the Season (when the Stanley Cup is awarded). During the Roster Freeze, no trading, waiving, waivers claims or farm team movement will be allowed (except for the first week of the Roster Freeze, during which waivers claims will still be allowed).

The only movement permitted during the Roster Freeze is to add players to, or remove players from, the Injured Reserve.

5.6 Method of Changing Rosters:

(a) Except where moving players in the Active Roster between counting positions and reserve positions, all roster changes must be accompanied by email to the Commissioners.

(b) Only the Commissioners can enact trade and waiver assignments/pick-ups.

(c) In order to take effect for Monday games and H2H matches, all emails to the Commissioners necessary to enact trades or waiver changes must be received by the end of the last NHL game on Sunday night. Such emails should contain indications about which players to start (if applicable).

(d) Trades are completed once submitted/confirmed by both interested managers, and thereafter cannot be reneged even if the trade has not yet taken effect.

Section 6 – Salary Cap and Floor

6.1 Player salaries are set by the marketplace of GMs, either through the Inaugural Bidding Draft, the Prospect Draft, or Free Agency.

6.2 The salary cap is $100 million. From Drop Day 2 until the end of the Season, each team’s cap hit can never go above this number.

6.3 The salary floor is $50 million. From Drop Day 2 until the end of the Season, each team’s cap hit can never go below this number.

Section 7 – Penalties

7.1 Any team that violates the maximum Active Roster size, maximum Farm Team size, the salary cap, or the salary floor, may face penalties as reasonably determined by the Commissioners.

7.2 The Commissioners must choose the least disruptive way of addressing the violation. Such methods include: disallowance of the trade or roster movement leading to the violation, and forced waiver/pickup of players to bring the roster size or cap inside the limits.

7.3 Only if these methods are unsuitable may the Commissioners resort to penalties such as forfeiture of H2H matches, forfeiture of Points’ Race points, forfeiture of draft picks, and forfeiture of Free Agency discount points.

PART THREE – Free Agency

Section 1 - Eligibility

1.1 Any player whose PFHL contract expires is a free agent.

1.2 Any player who was dropped or whose contract was bought out by a PFHL team prior to the Free Agency period becomes a free agent; and,

1.3 Any player who has never been owned in the PFHL and is at least 23 years of old as of July 1st of the year, is a free agent.

Section 2 – Tiers & Contract Duration

2.1 There are two tiers of restricted free agents (RFAs).

(a) RFA I, who are under 23 years of age, may be offered contracts up to 10 years in duration.

(b) RFA II, who are at least 23 years of age and under 28 years of age, may be offered contracts up to 8 years in duration. (Players listed as being 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27 years old on July 1st will be considered RFA II.)

2.2 There are two tiers of unrestricted free agents (UFAs).

(a) UFA I, who are UFAs under 35 years of age, may be offered contracts up to 5 years in duration.

(b) UFA II, who are 35 years of age or older, may be offered contracts up to 2 years in duration.

2.3 Players signed as UFAs will remain UFAs at the end of their contracts, regardless of their age.

2.4 Minor Rule: Each team has 40 discount points that may be applied to their RFAs (either RFA I or II). A maximum of 20 points can be applied to each of a team’s RFAs.

(a) Each GM must allot these discount points, before the deadline set for allotment, by emailing the Commissioners with the name of each player and a corresponding number of discount points to be applied.

(b) Each GM should make the subject of the email: “DO NOT READ- RFA DISCOUNT POINTS” to alert the Commissioners not to read it until after free agency is over.

Section 3 – Bidding & Auctions

3.1 Free Agents will be bid on during Live Auctions, similar to the Inaugural Draft. The Auction will take place each Off-Season sometime after the Prospect Draft, ideally in late August or September. All modalities of the Auction will be determined by the Commissioners in accordance with these rules and the general principles of fairness and efficiency.

3.2 The number that matters in Free Agent dealings is the total cash value of the contract. Free Agents are always assumed to prefer the contract with the highest total cash value. All bids entered during an auction will be assumed to be by total cash value, NOT by cap hit.

3.3 Prior to the Auction, the Commissioners will release a list of the Free Agents to be bid on. The list will include only Free Agents whose previous PFHL contract has expired. It will not include players who are Free Agents by virtue of not having previously been owned in the PFHL and being over the age of 23 (see Rule 1.3 of this Section), nor will it include dropped and bought-out players (unless stated otherwise by the Commissioners).

3.4 The Auction will begin with the list of RFAs before moving on to the UFAs. The order of the Auction will be based on the players’ salary in the previous season, from highest to lowest. Tie-break will be alphabetical by name (A to Z).

3.5 Minor Rule: If any Free Agent on the Auction list does not receive any bids, he enters the waiver pool at a salary of $0.500mil on a one-year contract. If such a player remains unclaimed until the next Off-Season, he becomes a UFA.

3.6 Minor Rule: Bidding opens at $0.500mil for a one-year contract.

(a) Once bidding is open, bids may be made upwards in $0.500mil increments.

3.7 Once all the players on the list have been either won in bids or received no bids, Free Agents not on the list may be nominated.

(a) The last-placed GM in H2H standings of the previous season has the first chance to nominate a Free Agent to be bid upon. The bidding is the same as in Rule 3.6 above.

(b) The second-last-placed GM has the next chance to nominate a player.

(c) If a GM wishes, he may pass on his chance to nominate a player. A GM who has passed may bid on players nominated by others, but loses any further chance to nominate.

(d) The Auction proceeds in a snaking fashion to the first-placed H2H GM, and then back.

(e) The Auction ends when all GMs have passed.

3.8 Each GM is permitted one retraction on each player; a second retraction on the same player by any one GM means that he can no longer make bids for that player.

3.9 Minor Rule: An Auction will end when 30 seconds have elapsed with no increased bid and no retraction. The highest non-retracted bid before this moment is the winning bid.

3.10 In the case of a UFA, the player immediately becomes property of the winning team.

3.11 In the case of an RFA, the original owning team will have 30 seconds to decide whether to match the offer and retain the player, or let the player go and accept compensation.

3.12 Compensation for RFAs is based on the following schedule:

$0-1.99mil: 1 3rd round pick
$2-3.99mil: 1 2nd round pick
$4-5.99mil: 1 2nd round pick, 1 3rd round pick
$6-7.99mil: 2 2nd round picks
$8-9.99mil: 2 2nd round picks, 1 3rd round pick
$10-12.49mil: 1 1st round pick, 1 2nd round pick, 1 3rd round pick
$12.50-14.99mil: 1 1st round pick, 2 2nd round picks, 1 3rd round pick
$15mil+: 2 1st round picks, 2 2nd round picks, 1 3rd round pick

(a) All of the compensatory picks must be available in the next two drafts. A team that wins on a bid for which it does not have sufficient compensation will see that bid rendered invalid, and the second-highest bid will trump.

(b) If multiple picks are available to satisfy the compensation required, the earliest picks will be chosen.

(c) If multiple ‘earliest’ picks are available to satisfy the compensation required, the GM who is to receive the pick(s) gets to choose the picks he’ll get.

(d) Awarded compensatory picks can be used to bid on RFAs during the same Auction.

PART FOUR – The Prospect Draft

Section 1 - Eligibility

1.1 All players are eligible for the Prospect Draft…

Who are 22 or fewer years of age as of July 1st of the year of the Prospect Draft, and
Whose rights are owned by an NHL team at the time of the Prospect Draft.

Section 2 – Timing

2.1 The Prospect Draft may never be held before the NHL Entry Draft, and may never be held after Drop Day 1.

2.2 The Commissioners will set a date and time for the Prospect Draft as far in advance as possible, and will attempt to find a date/time when all GMs can attend. If this is not possible, the date/time selected should allow the maximum number of GMs to attend.

Section 3 – Draft Length & Order

3.1 The Draft will be four rounds long.

3.2 Each team will be assigned one pick in each round.

Minor Rule: These picks may be traded up to two full Off-Seasons in advance of the draft (i.e. 2014 picks may be traded beginning of the Off-Season of 2012).

3.3 The order of picks in the Prospect Draft will be determined by the following system:

Each non-playoff PFHL team will be matched, by order based on its standing in the H2H Matches, with the corresponding NHL team for the NHL’s draft lottery. Ex. the 16th-place H2H team will be matched with the 30th-place NHL team, the 15th-place H2H team will be matched with the 29th-placed NHL team, etc…
The playoff teams will not participate in this lottery and will in all cases have their picks after the non-playoff teams
Each playoff team will pick in the reverse order of its positioning relative to other playoff teams – i.e. the 1st-place H2H team will pick last, the 2nd-place H2H team will pick second-last, etc…
In case of a tie between two teams in H2H standings, the tie-breakers are:

The record of the tied teams in H2H matches against each other (worse record = better draft positioning)
The standings of the teams in the Points Race (worse Points Race standings = better draft positioning)

In case of a tie between three or more teams in H2H standings, the tie-breakers are:

The higher percentage of available points earned in games among those clubs (lower percentage = better draft positioning)
The standings of the teams in the Points Race (worse Points Race standings = better draft positioning)

Section 4 – Prospect Contracts

4.1 All Prospects are considered to have signed 4-year contracts upon being selected.

4.2 A prospect’s contract does not begin to tick until he is placed in the Active Roster. Once he is placed in the Active Roster, the current season is considered the first year of his contract. His contract continues to wind down even if he spends the entire next season on the Farm Team.

4.3 Minor Rule: The cap hit during a prospect’s contract depends on the round in which he is drafted, according to the following schedule:

First Round, First Half: $4.0mil
First Round, Second Half: $3.5mil
Second Round, First Half: $2.5mil
Second Round, Second Half: $2.0mil
Third Round: $1.0mil
Fourth Round: $0.5mil

PART FIVE – Divisions, Conferences, Playoffs

Section 1 – League Organization

1.1 Minor Rule: The league will be organized into two Conferences, the first known as the Tim Horton Conference and the other known as the Scott Niedermayer Conference.

1.2 Minor Rule: Each Conference is organized into two divisions of four teams each. Inside the Tim Horton Conference are the Ken Dryden Division and the Brian Propp Division. Inside the Scott Niedermayer Conference are the Bobby Smith Division and the Wayne Gretzky Division.

Section 2 – Qualifying & Scoring

2.1 The top four teams from each Conference, based on their H2H Points, will make the playoffs.

If two teams have the same amount of H2H points and a tiebreaker is needed to determine final H2H standings and/or playoff seedings, H2H record between the two tied teams will be used as a tiebreaker.If that does not break the tie, total Fantasy Points for the season will be used.
If three or more teams have the same amount of H2H points and a tiebreaker is needed to determine final H2H standings and/or playoff seedings, the higher percentage of available points earned in games among those clubs will be used as a tiebreaker. If that does not break the tie, total Fantasy Points for the season will be used.

2.2 Playoff scoring is governed by the same rules as H2H scoring, notably that only Active Roster players’ points count and that defenceman ice time points are used. The same rules for adding points also apply.

Note: Teams are allowed to start more than two goaltenders during the playoffs.

2.3 Minor Rule: In the first round, the 1st-placed team will have a 2-point “home-ice advantage” over the 4th-placed team. The 2nd-placed team will have a 1-point advantage over the 3rd-placed team.

In all other rounds, the highest-placed team on H2H Records will have a 1-point advantage.

Section 3 – Playoff Rounds

3.1 PFHL playoffs consist of three rounds and coincide with the last 4 weeks of the Season.

3.2 The First Round coincides with the first week and features the No. 1 teams in each Conference against the No. 4 seeds, with No. 2 playing No. 3.

3.3 The Second Round coincides with the second week and is the Conference championships, featuring the winners of 1v4 and 2v3 in each Conference.

3.4 The Third Round coincides with the last 2 weeks of the Season and is the Final; it pits the Conference champions against each other.

Section 4 – Tiebreakers

4.1 In the event of a tie in the first round, both of the tied teams will advance to the next round.

4.2 In the event of a tie in the second round, the only tiebreaker is total Playoff points. If that does not break the tie, both tied teams will advance.

4.3 In the event of a tie in the third round, the only tiebreaker is total Playoff points. If that fails to break the tie, multiple teams may be declared ‘co-winners’.

PART SIX – Miscellaneous Rules

Section 1 – Prize Distribution

1.1 All league income for a given season, less all league expenses for that season, will be divided according to the following formula:

a) Minor Rule: The Regular Season or Points Race Championship will be worth 75% of the total prize, with 60% going to the winner and 15% to the runner-up.

b) Minor Rule: The Playoff Championship will be worth 25% of the total, with 20% going to the winner and 5% to the runner-up.

Section 2 – General Managers

2.1 All General Managers may get advice from whomsoever they wish. However, each team may only have one General Manager, in the meaning of a directing mind or controlling authority. Any team that is found by the Commissioners to have more than one General Manager may be subject to league sanction, including the forfeiture of draft picks, reduction of cap space, and even, in extreme cases, expulsion.

2.2 General Managers may be penalized for extreme inactivity or serious lack of competence. The ideal of the league is to have every GM be active and committed to winning. Constant failure to send in updates, refusal to answer trade inquiries, a series of very poor trades, etc… may be grounds for a reprimand, an appropriate penalty (ex. poor trading might get a penalty of not being allowed to trade for a number of months), or even, in extreme cases, expulsion.

Section 3 – Player Positions

3.1 Player positions are generally easy to determine; however, in some cases a defenceman may spend significant time playing forward, or vice versa. In such cases, the Commissioners will determine the proper PFHL position for the player. The Commissioners will go with Fantrax eligibility, but GMs may submit evidence to support the other side, and may call the Commissioners’ attention to a position change. If the player is on one of the Commissioners’ teams, or if one or more of the Commissioners are likewise interested in the outcome so as to render difficult a completely impartial verdict, a group comprised of any remaining Commissioner(s) and uninterested neutral GMs, agreed to by the interested parties, will pass judgment.

Section 4 – Retirement from professional hockey

4.1 In the case of unexpected retirements from professional hockey, the PFHL owner of the retired player may buy the player out of the remainder of his contract, without being forced to count any of the contract against his cap.

4.2 This free buyout is only available where:

The second half of the player’s PFHL contract has already begun (a player who retires before the second half of his PFHL contract begins, may be bought out only after the second half has begun) and at least one of these two conditions is met:
The player retired at 32 or fewer years of age for any reason whatsoever, or
The player retired over the age of 32, but the retirement came while his NHL contract still had at least one full season remaining.

4.3 A GM wishing to take advantage of this option must clearly state and show evidence that the player has retired; must clearly state which of the rubrics his retirement fits in to (b or c above); and must do this at Drop Day 1,when other buyouts are also due.

4.4 This free buy-out is not available for players who have retired under scenarios other than those envisaged in 4.2 a, b, or c. Neither is it available for players who have not retired but are playing in a different professional league, wherever that may be. For players who have left for the KHL, see Part 2, Rule 4.3 (b).